ABSTRACT
This chapter sheds light on the dynamics of biculturalism in practice within an organisation and analyse how staff enact the museum’s bicultural concept in their day-to-day work through interacting with each other. It aims to make sense of the ‘messiness’ and complexities of biculturalism in a museum context using an empirical mixed-methods approach of document analysis, interviews, participant observation and autoethnography. The value of the ethnography lies in looking across and beyond TP as an exhibition space that mirrors New Zealand society, instead dissecting TP as a living entity that is the sum of diverse groups of people working together under a bicultural umbrella. Biculturalism is visible to visitors to TP when they enter the Museum: a host greets the visitor with the words “Kia ora, welcome to Te Papa”, as visitors wander through the exhibitions or follow the signs to the toilet they will notice that introductory panels and signage around the Museum are bilingual in English and Maori.
